New women’s Chamber to provide advocacy and support

Somewhere between 30 per cent and 40 per cent of small businesses in Australia are run by women. Quite a few of them are refugees from corporate life.

But while working for yourself gives you more control and hopefully a more understanding boss, some of the hassles over gender barriers can still emerge.

There are very few women in the bodies that represent small to medium-sized businesses. There is not a single woman on the board of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which is made up of state and territory chambers of commerce and national industry associations.

Earlier this year, business woman Yolanda Vega launched the Australian Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry (AWCCI) to provide advocacy and support for women in the sector.

The response from established bodies has been mixed. Some have offered to help, some did not respond and others just don’t want to deal with it at all, Vega says.

But it has gained support from the federal and NSW governments and some other organisations, and has launched a survey to find out more about women business owners.

The launch of AWCCI is timely. The first Women’s Economic Summit at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) forum was held last month with 21 countries, including Australia, signing a declaration to take action to improve women’s participation in the economy.

The four core areas of interest are access to capital, capacity and skills building, women’s leadership and access to markets. This focus has been largely missing from the discussion about gender balance and business, Vega says.

“We’ve had a lot of talk about women on boards and getting to the top,” she says. “I think the dialogue will start shifting and this has been confirmed at the APEC summit. It was the first women’s economic summit in APEC and there was lots of discussion about these issues.”

Vega was one of six Australian representatives at the forum, which was addressed by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Women are walking away from corporate environments and starting up businesses because they can, Vega says. But she still hears of examples of gender discrimination, mostly in the accessing of capital.

Banks are still asking for a husband or other male guarantor when women apply for business loans. And stereotypes about women tend to hamper efforts to access other forms of investment.

“Angel investors and venture capitalists won’t look at women because they believe they won’t take risks,” Vega says. “So we have a group of high economic potential who can’t get access to capital because they are [seen as] not taking enough risks. But research contradicts this assumption, particularly the research on micro loans which go to women.”

Studies show women’s return on investment was higher than for their male counterparts and women were more likely to repay debt, whether it involved small enterprises in developing countries or more complex businesses.

A Bankwest report in June said the number of firms in Australia owned by women was growing twice as fast as men’s. Despite this, there is not much data on how and why women start businesses, in what sectors, their revenue, operations or employee numbers.

“If we’re going to advocate on behalf of women, we need to know what they need and want,” Vega says. “The whole point of AWCCI is not about women per se but that they are an untapped market and it’s helping our community achieve economic expansion to unlock growth.”

The business survey is open until December on the AWCCI website, and is being managed by women’s leadership researcher, the Reiby Institute. A report on the findings will be released in February.